Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)

FreeBSD Manual Pages

  
 
  

home | help
ROXTERM(1)			 User Commands			    ROXTERM(1)

NAME
       roxterm - terminal emulator

SYNOPSIS

       roxterm [-? | --help] [--help-all] [--help-gtk] [-u | --usage]
	       [--geometry=GEOM	| -g GEOM] [--appdir=DIR]
	       [--profile=PROFILE | -p PROFILE]
	       [--colour-scheme=SCHEME | --color-scheme=SCHEME | -c SCHEME]
	       [--shortcut-scheme=SCHEME | -s SCHEME] [--separate] [--replace]
	       [--fork]	[--hold] [--atexit=ACTION] [--directory=DIR | -d DIR]
	       [--show-menubar]	[--hide-menubar] [--maximise | -m]
	       [--fullscreen | -f] [--borderless | -b] [--disable-sm] [--tab]
	       [--zoom=ZOOM | -z ZOOM] [--title=TITLE |	-T TITLE]
	       [--tab-name=NAME	| -n NAME] [--role=ROLE] [--session=SESSION]
	       [--display=DISPLAY] [--execute COMMAND |	-e COMMAND]

DESCRIPTION
       ROXTerm is a terminal emulator. It provides features similar to
       gnome-terminal. It is based on the same VTE library, which implements a
       virtual terminal	emulator.

       The original design goals of ROXTerm were twofold. A small memory
       footprint and a quick start-up time. This was realised by not using the
       Gnome libraries and by moving the configuration GUI to a	separate
       applet. However,	thanks to all the features it has acquired over	the
       years, ROXTerm can now be accused of bloat. But it is now very
       configurable indeed. It is aimed	at "power" users who make heavy	use of
       terminals and who wish to have fine control over	the many options.

       ROXTerm still supports the ROX desktop application layout it was	named
       after. It can also be installed in a conventional manner	for use	in
       other desktop environments. Both	X11 and	Wayland	are supported.

OPTIONS
       ROXTerm follows the usual GNU command line syntax. Both long options
       starting	with two dashes	(`-') and short	single dash options are
       provided. Here follows a	summary	of options.

       -? --help
	   Show	a list of ROXTerm options.

       --help-gtk
	   Show	only the GTK+ options.

       --help-all
	   Show	all options.

       --usage
	   Show	a brief	summary	of usage.

       -d DIRECTORY --directory=DIRECTORY
	   Run shell/command in	DIRECTORY.

       -g COLUMNSxROWS[+X+Y] --geometry=COLUMNSxROWS[+X+Y]
	   Set the size	of the terminal	window.	Optionally a position may be
	   given as well.

       --appdir=DIR
	   Application directory when run as a ROX app.

       --show-menubar --hide-menubar
	   Whether to show or hide the menubar,	overriding the profile.	The
	   default is to show it.

       --maximise -m
	   Make	initial	terminal window	take up	the whole screen, but keep the
	   window frame	decorations.

       --fullscreen -f
	   Make	initial	terminal window	take up	the whole screen with no
	   window furniture.

       --borderless -b
	   Disable window decorations like title bar, resize controls and
	   frame border, if the	window manager supports	this.

       --tab
	   If possible open the	new terminal in	an existing window rather than
	   open	a new window. If used in conjunction with -T/--title the tab
	   will	be placed in an	existing window	with the same title template
	   if one exists. This option overrides	--zoom and --fullscreen.

       --zoom=ZOOM -z ZOOM
	   Scale terminal's font by a factor of	ZOOM (1.0 is normal size).

       -p PROFILE --profile=PROFILE
	   Use the named profile.

       -c SCHEME --colour-scheme=SCHEME	--color-scheme=SCHEME
	   Use the named colour	scheme.

       -s SCHEME --shortcut-scheme=SCHEME
	   Use the named keyboard shortcut scheme.

       --title=TITLE -T	TITLE
	   Set window title template. May include "%s" which is	substituted
	   with	the full contents of the tab's label, "%n" which is
	   substituted by the number of	tabs, and "%t" which is	substituted by
	   the current tab number.

       --tab-name=NAME -n NAME
	   Set tab name	as displayed in	its label. May include "%s" which is
	   substituted with the	window title string set	by the terminal, "%n"
	   which is substituted	by the number of tabs, and "%t"	which is
	   substituted by the current tab number.

       --separate
	   Use a separate process for this terminal.

       --fork
	   Always fork into the	background. Usually the	first instance stays
	   in the foreground and subsequent invocations	return once they have
	   asked the master instance to	handle their command. This option
	   causes the master instance to fork itself into the background; the
	   foreground process returns once the master is ready to handle
	   further commands.

       --atexit=ACTION
	   What	should be done with the	tab after the shell command exits.
	   Choose one of: close, hold, respawn,	ask.

       --hold
	   An alias for	--atexit=hold. Keep the	tab open.

       --replace
	   Replace any existing	instance as ROXTerm D-BUS service provider.

       --role=ROLE
	   Set the WM_WINDOW_ROLE property on the window. This can be used to
	   uniquely identify a window across sessions, or in selecting
	   configuration resources by window managers.

       --session=SESSION
	   Restore the named user session.

       --display=DISPLAY
	   The named X server display to use. If you use roxterm on multiple
	   different displays on the same system then you need to use the
	   --separate option as	well.

       -e --execute
	   Execute remainder of	the command line inside	the terminal. This
	   must	be the final option. If	there is only one following argument,
	   it is parsed	in case	it is a	command	with space-separated arguments
	   that	was passed to roxterm in quotes. If there is more than one
	   argument they are treated as	a command and arguments	without
	   parsing.

SETUP
       D-Bus is	a messaging system which ROXTerm uses to connect terminals
       with its	configure tool.	ROXTerm	uses the "session" bus,	which should
       be started along	with your desktop environment. Current versions	of
       ROX, GNOME and KDE/Plasma session managers all launch D-Bus. If you use
       some other session/desktop/window manager, which	doesn't	launch D-Bus,
       you need	to start it yourself. Insert something like this near the
       start of	your .xinitrc or .xsession:

		   if test -z "$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS" ; then
		       eval `dbus-launch --sh-syntax --exit-with-session`
		       export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
		   fi

       This setup provides a way to map	an arbitrary number of profiles	onto
       configuration filenames.

TABS
       Each window can contain a number	of tabs, each with its own terminal.
       The tab bar is always shown by default, even if there is	only one tab,
       to avoid	resizing inconsistencies, but this is configurable.

       If you experience a problem with	tab labels shrinking, after dragging
       tabs so that they only have room	to display '...', then make sure the
       pointer is over the body	of a terminal when you drop a dragged tab, not
       over the	tab bar	area.

MENUS
       When the	menu bar is hidden, the	popup menu duplicates the same items
       as in the menu bar. This	gives you full access to all the functions
       with the	menu bar hidden. The menu bar is effectively redundant,	but
       provided	to make	ROXTerm	appear more straightforward for	first-time
       users. It can be	turned on and off for a	particular window or more
       permanently by using the	configuration manager.

       The popup menu also allows email	and web	addresses to be	opened in
       external	applications, if such an address is highlighted	by the pointer
       being over it.

URI HIGHLIGHTING
       When the	pointer	is over	an address that	ROXTerm	recognises as a	URI
       (typically a web	URL or email address) it is highlighted	by underlining
       and a change of pointer shape. You can open the address either by
       right-clicking on it and	choosing Open... in the	menu or	by holding
       Ctrl and	left-clicking. The applications	used to	handle these addresses
       may be set with the configuration tool, otherwise it will try to	find a
       suitable	default.

       Also, by	holding	down the Ctrl key, you can drag	a URI to pass it to
       another application which is willing to accept it as a URI or text.
       Dragging	it into	the same window	it came	from pastes the	address	back
       in.

       If the pointer is over the server address portion of a URL it only
       highlights the address, but not the filename. Move the pointer over the
       filename	to get the whole URL. Similarly, you can highlight an email
       address with or without a leading mailto:.

       SSH URI and hostname matching is	supported. URIs	including a path name
       can only	be copied to the clipboard. In the absence of a	pathname,
       ROXTerm can also	start a	ssh session to the described host. Plain
       hostnames are also matched, but only if they start with "ssh", or end
       with ".local" or	".lan".

DRAG AND DROP
       You can drag items onto terminal	windows. Text objects are fed to the
       terminal	as if typed. Files and URIs have their location	fed in rather
       than the	object's contents. Graphical files can also be dragged onto
       the appropriate area of the configuration manager to set	terminal
       background images. Hold down the	Ctrl key while dragging	a highlighted
       URI, to allow the address to be dragged to another application.

       You can now drag	tabs by	their labels to	reorder	them within a window
       or to move them to another ROXTerm window or, by	dropping them outside
       a ROXTerm window, move tabs to new windows of their own.	Use mouse
       button 3	(the right button) to move an unselected tab without selecting
       it. Button 2 is a shortcut to paste the contents	of the clipboard as
       the tab's name.

SESSIONS
       User sessions can be saved under	a name.	Click Save Session... in the
       File menu. A session preserves the current state	windows	and tabs, but
       not their textual content. A session can	be restored with the --session
       option. It will be restored by the default if it	is named 'Default'.
       Leaving the field blank is equivalent to	'Default'.

CONFIGURATION
       Configuration is	based on named profiles, so you	can save different
       sets of options and switch between them quickly.	There are profiles for
       general options,	colour schemes and keyboard shortcuts. Colour Schemes
       and Profiles apply to one tab at	a time,	but Keyboard Shortcuts apply
       to all tabs in the same window. New windows and tabs inherit settings
       from the	window/tab they	were opened from.

       The Preferences menu allows you to select the current profile. Open the
       configuration manager to	edit the current profile or colour scheme, or
       to manage all settings. In the configuration manager you	can select one
       of the four types of option groups and edit, copy, delete or rename
       them. The item with the selected	radio button is	the default for	new
       terminals.

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
       ROXTerm allows the keyboard shortcut profiles to	be edited in a text
       editor, either via the Configuration Manager or from a terminal's menu
       (Preferences submenu). The action names correspond to the localised
       labels used in the menu items. The new shortcuts	should automatically
       be reloaded when	you save the file. Alternatively, selecting a scheme
       in the Preferences menu now forces it to	be reloaded. The default file
       for keyboard shortcuts is:

		   ~/.config/roxterm.sourceforge.net/Shortcuts/Default.

       The default keyboard shortcuts are:

		   Ctrl+Shift+N	   New Window
		   Ctrl+Shift+T	   New Tab
		   Ctrl+Shift+Q	   Close Window
		   Ctrl+Shift+W	   Close Tab
		   Ctrl+PageUp	   Previous Tab
		   Ctrl+PageDown   Next	Tab
		   Ctrl+Shift+A	   Select All
		   Ctrl+Shift+C	   Copy
		   Ctrl+Shift+V	   Paste
		   Ctrl+Shift+M	   Show	Menubar
		   Ctrl+plus	   Zoom	In
		   Ctrl+minus	   Zoom	Out
		   Ctrl+0	   Normal Size
		   F11		   Full	Screen
		   Ctrl+Shift+B	   Borderless
		   Shift+Up	   Scroll Up One Line
		   Shift+Down	   Scroll Down One Line
		   F1		   Show	Manual
		   Ctrl+Shift+Y	   Copy	& Paste
		   Ctrl+Shift+F	   Find...
		   Ctrl+Shift+I	   Find	Next
		   Ctrl+Shift+P	   Find	Previous

       In addition, tabs can be	selected by Alt+1, where 1 is to be replaced
       by the tab number. This can be disabled in the profile.

CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT
       Run the configuration manager by	selecting "Configure..." in ROXTerm's
       menu or run roxterm-config.

       Configuration files can be swapped with other users. Each profile,
       colour scheme and keyboard shortcut scheme consists of a	single file.
       Saving a	file in	the appropriate	directory will create a	profile	with
       the same	name as	the file.

       Locations for files follow the XDG Base Directory specification.

	1. ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/roxterm.sourceforge.net, defaulting to
	   ~/.config/roxterm.sourceforge.net.

	2. ${XDG_CONFIG_DIRS}/roxtem.sourceforge.net, defaulting to
	   /etc/xdg/roxtem.sourceforge.net.

	3. ROXTerm/Config for ROX users, or ${datadir}/roxterm/Config for
	   others. ${datadir} is usually /usr/share for	packages or
	   /usr/local/share when compiled from source.

       Within any or each of those locations, profiles are saved in a
       "Profiles" subdirectory,	colour schemes in "Colours" and	keyboard
       shortcut	schemes	in "Shortcuts".	A file called "Global" contains
       miscellaneous options, which don't fall into the	above categories,
       including the default profile for new terminals.

ADVANCED
       ROXTerm terminals can be	configured from	applications and scripts via
       D-BUS. For this purpose there are three methods.	They require an	ID
       code to target a	specific terminal. Each	roxterm's ID can be read from
       the environment variable	ROXTERM_ID in the shell	or application running
       in it. The D-Bus	object path is "net.sf.roxterm.Options"	and the	D-Bus
       interface is "/net/sf/roxterm/Options". The methods are:

		   SetProfile("id", "profile_name")

       Ask the terminal	to use the named profile. Note that any	other tabs in
       the same	window will be updated to the same new profile.	All tabs in
       one window must have the	same profile, so that their font size and
       terminal	size remain consistent.

		   SetColourScheme("id", "scheme_name")

       Ask the terminal	to use the named colour	scheme.	Tabs sharing the same
       window may have different colour	schemes	from each other.

		   SetShortcutScheme("id", "scheme_name")

       Ask the terminal	to use the named keyboard shortcut scheme. Tabs
       sharing the same	window must also share the same	shortcut scheme.

       Example using dbus-send in a shell script:

		 dbus-send --session /net/sf/roxterm/Options \
		      net.sf.roxterm.Options.SetColourScheme \
		      string:$ROXTERM_ID string:GTK

       You may also send D-Bus signals to change individual options within a
       named profile or	colour scheme using the	methods	StringOption,
       IntOption (also used for	boolean	options) and FloatOption. All
       terminals using the named profile or colour scheme are affected,	but
       only temporarily. The options are not saved for new terminals. The
       methods all take	3 arguments:

          Full	profile	name, including	a prefix of "Profiles/"	or "Colours/"

          Option name

          Value

       To see which option names you can use, check the	config files, from
       which the types can be deduced. Example using dbus-send in a shell
       script:

		   dbus-send --session /net/sf/roxterm/Options \
		       net.sf.roxterm.Options.StringOption \
		       string:Colours/GTK string:background 'string:#ffffff'

       A third possible	use is to notify roxterm that a	profile, colour	scheme
       or shortcuts scheme has been changed by an external program and all
       terminals using that profile etc	need to	reload it:

		   OptionsChanged("family_name", "profile_name")

       where family_name is one	of "Profiles", "Colours" or "Shortcuts". For
       example:

		   dbus-send --session /net/sf/roxterm/Options \
		       net.sf.roxterm.Options.OptionsChanged \
		       string:Profiles string:Default

ENVIRONMENT
       The following environment variables are set or used by roxterm:

       COLORTERM
	   This	is set to "truecolor" by VTE if	the window supports 16 million
	   colors.

       EDITOR
	   The name of the editor. Defaults to "gedit",	"kate",	"gvim",
	   "emacs", whichever appears first in PATH.

       LANG
	   The language	of the help URI. This defaults to "en".

       ROXTERM_ID
	   The unique identity of the roxterm D-Bus instance.

       ROXTERM_NUM
	   The number of toplevel windows which	are managed by this roxterm
	   process.

       ROXTERM_PID
	   The process identifier of roxterm.

       TERM
	   The name of the terminfo description, which is xterm-256color.

       VTE_VERSION
	   The version number of the VTE library.

       WINDOWID
	   The decimal X Window	ID of the toplevel roxterm window. Only
	   supported in	an X environment.

       XDG_CONFIG_HOME
	   Where to save roxterm sessions. Defaults to ~/.config. Sessions are
	   saved under $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/roxterm.sourceforge.net/UserSessions/.

SEE ALSO
       file:///usr/local/share/doc/roxterm/en/index.html

AUTHOR
       This manual page	was written by Tony Houghton <h@realh.co.uk>.
       Permission is granted to	copy, distribute and/or	modify this document
       under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 2 or any
       later version published by the Free Software Foundation.

       On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License
       can be found in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL.

AUTHOR
       Tony Houghton
	   Developer

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (C) 2005-2020 Tony Houghton

ROXTerm				 01 April 2013			    ROXTERM(1)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=roxterm&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+14.3-RELEASE+and+Ports>

home | help